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“Stand Your Ground” Nation: America used to value the concept of retreat. Now we just shoot.
Slate ^ | February 25, 2014 | Dahlia Lithwick

Posted on 03/26/2014 5:51:02 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Ever since George Zimmerman gunned down Trayvon Martin in his Sanford, Fla., gated community, it’s become an article of faith that the rash of lethal shootings in public places—from the Florida moviegoer who was killed after a texting and popcorn-throwing incident to Jordan Davis, shot in his car at a Jacksonville, Fla., gas station to last week’s lethal shooting in an Arizona Walmart—is attributable to the “stand your ground” laws enacted over the past decade in 26 states across the country. Aggressive human interaction, post-Trayvon, now follows a painfully familiar pattern: An altercation occurs. Someone says he feared for his life. An unarmed victim (often young, black, and male) is shot and killed. The headlines either explicitly or implicitly invoke “stand your ground.”

Last week, Kriston Charles Belinte Chee, an unarmed man, got into a fight with Cyle Wayne Quadlin at a Walmart in suburban Arizona. Quadlin opened fire midargument and killed Chee. Officers decided not to charge Quadlin because, they concluded, the killing was in self-defense. According to the police spokesman, “Mr. Quadlin was losing the fight and indicated he ‘was in fear for his life.’” Just a week earlier, a jury in Jacksonville, Fla., found Michael Dunn guilty on four counts of attempted murder but did not convict him on the most serious charge of first-degree murder, in the death of 17-year-old Jordan Davis. Dunn shot and killed Davis, also unarmed, because the music coming from his car was too loud. Dunn claimed he saw something like a gun in the vehicle, and that was apparently enough for some members of the jury to conclude that Dunn hadn’t committed first-degree murder.

Given all this, it’s not unreasonable to argue that, in America, you can be shot and killed, without consequences for the shooter....

(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government; US: Florida
KEYWORDS: banglist; blackkk; dahlialithwick; demagogicparty; ericholder; florida; georgezimmerman; memebuilding; partisanmediashill; partisanmediashills; slate; standyourground; trayvon; trayvonmartin; zimmerman
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
America used to value the concept of retreat. Yeah. Like at The Alamo, Bastogne and Chosin Reservoir. Sigh.
61 posted on 03/26/2014 8:18:30 PM PDT by Colonel_Flagg (Some people meet their heroes. I raised mine. Go Army.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

George Zimmerman had done all of the “retreating” possible, when he was on his back with Trayvon on top of him, bashing his head into the sidewalk.


62 posted on 03/26/2014 8:21:06 PM PDT by G Larry (There's the Beef!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Slate, lol.


63 posted on 03/26/2014 8:25:06 PM PDT by facedown (Armed in the Heartland)
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To: EEGator

That’s great.


64 posted on 03/26/2014 8:26:47 PM PDT by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I don’t know whether it’s a measure of our societal balkanization, or the supercilious hubris of the mainstream-ish media, that someone could write something so manifestly asinine and then have it published.


65 posted on 03/26/2014 8:34:30 PM PDT by papertyger (if disdain of homosexual behavior is "bigotry," is it any wonder hostility to Islam is "racism?")
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To: MeshugeMikey

...looks like Debbie blabbermouth Wasserman-test Schultz’ long-lost twin...


66 posted on 03/26/2014 8:35:35 PM PDT by castlebrew (Gun Control means hitting where you're aiming!))
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To: hometoroost

Yep.

Don’t start nothin’, won’t be nothin’...


67 posted on 03/26/2014 8:36:32 PM PDT by castlebrew (Gun Control means hitting where you're aiming!))
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To: castlebrew

two pees in a pod!


68 posted on 03/26/2014 8:39:02 PM PDT by MeshugeMikey ( "Never, never, never give up". Winston Churchill)
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To: Billthedrill

The older I get, the more I become convinced counter-factual abuse of the first amendment, such as Dahlia has perpetrated, should be legally actionable.


69 posted on 03/26/2014 8:40:19 PM PDT by papertyger (if disdain of homosexual behavior is "bigotry," is it any wonder hostility to Islam is "racism?")
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
America used to value the concept of retreat. Now we just shoot.

It's extremely difficult to retreat when you are pinned to the ground by one of Holder's People whacked out on Purple Drank and determined to beat you to death.


70 posted on 03/26/2014 8:45:55 PM PDT by Iron Munro (The future ain't what it use to be -- Yogi Berra)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I know I am going to take heavy incoming for this, but I just gotta say it.
See, even a dogface Army puke can learn from a jarhead Marine. (just jokin, heh heh heh).
Hang in there 2ndDiv.


71 posted on 03/26/2014 9:42:33 PM PDT by 5th MEB (Progressives in the open; --- FIRE FOR EFFECT!!)
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To: 5th MEB

[pinkie in the air, sipping from a dainty tea cup] I was an intelligence analyst. LOL


72 posted on 03/26/2014 9:46:18 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (I will raise $2M for Sarah Palin's next run, what will you do?)
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To: outofsalt
Don't forget Lieutenant Proctor...
73 posted on 03/27/2014 2:06:54 AM PDT by EEGator
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

More panty-waist whining.


74 posted on 03/27/2014 2:52:49 AM PDT by AdaGray
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

She must be a rich person.


75 posted on 03/27/2014 8:21:45 AM PDT by <1/1,000,000th%
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